Pagani Huayra 70 Derecho: V12 engine, seven-speed manual and 350 km/h top speed

© pagani.com

Pagani is once again extending the life of the Huayra, even though the model officially gave way to the Utopia back in 2022. The new Huayra 70 Derecho isn’t a nostalgic show car but a bespoke, roofless hypercar with an AMG V12 and a genuine seven-speed manual — precisely the kind of hardware that is disappearing from this segment faster than power outputs are rising.

It is the second of three special editions marking Horacio Pagani’s 70th birthday, following the Huayra Trionfo. The name Derecho refers to a fierce windstorm laced with thunderstorms, and here the metaphor doesn’t feel forced: the 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 sends 852 hp and 1100 Nm to the rear wheels alone, with top speed electronically capped at 350 km/h. Pagani hasn’t disclosed an acceleration figure.

The cabin’s standout detail is the exposed gate of the manual gearbox. Against the Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale, where the “manual” character is built around a dual-clutch automatic, Pagani bets on a real connection between lever, transmission and driver. It isn’t faster, but for customers at this level speed stopped being the only argument long ago.

The body is finished in Pearl Orange with Inky Blue accents. The semi-transparent coat highlights the “fish-bone” carbon weave, a wider rear wing with integrated split lights sits at the back, and some parts are milled from solid aluminium with a glossy titanium anodising. The wheels measure 20 inches at the front and 21 inches at the rear.

The interior is trimmed in Ceramic White and Tricolore Blue leather with orange accents. The instruments look almost like jewellery, but at Pagani that has long been part of the character: the company sells not minimalism but mechanical theatre.

From a market standpoint, the Huayra 70 Derecho shows why small-series hypercars live by different rules than ordinary supercars. Bugatti, too, has learned to make money by continuing old stories, and Pagani does it even more radically: the Zonda debuted in 1999 and still receives one-off versions. For collectors, the practical meaning is confined to the collector market: the liquidity of such a car depends not on mileage or specification, but on how precisely a single example captures the nerve of its era.

The Huayra 70 Derecho isn’t a replacement for the Utopia but an expensive way to remind us that sometimes the past sells more convincingly than the future.